A TGA study of CO2 gasification reaction of various types of coal and biomass

The CO2 gasification kinetics of various carbonaceous samples of high-and low-rank coal and a biomass were determined under CO2 flow with increasing temperature in a Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) coupled with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). We utilized four different types of fuels and their chars with significant differences in their physico-chemical properties that are being most widely used in Korea. As a result, fuels with larger surface area and more catalytic components in ash were preferred for increasing the intrinsic reactivity of CO2 gasification particularly for low-rank coals and biomass, respectively. It was postulated that the catalytic effect of ash components could compensate for the lack of active sites in the biomass samples. From the practical point of view, the utilization of the low-rank coal with the porous char structure with blending the biomass is recommended for a remarkable increase of the gasification rate.